# The Pursuit of Happiness  ## Metadata - Author:: [[Jeffrey Rosen]] - Full Title:: The Pursuit of Happiness - Category: #books ## Highlights > “Even as man imagines himself to be, such he is, and he is also that which he imagines.” —PARACELSUS ([Location 20](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=20)) > Notes on Cicero’s Tusculan Disputations ([Location 25](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=25)) > Stoics praise calm joy without elation Its motion placid and to reason aligned When it transports with wanton exultation It fires the perturbations of the mind ([Location 28](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=28)) > The four disordered passions are emotions That lack the moderation reason brings Elation, lust, fear, grief are their commotions Prudence and temperance are their golden rings ([Location 30](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=30)) > The soul that’s tranquil, calm, restrained, at rest The happy soul, the subject of our quest ([Location 32](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=32)) > Benjamin Franklin ([Location 37](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=37)) > He had been reading some of the classical Greek and Roman philosophers—Pythagoras, Xenophon, Plutarch, and Cicero—as well as scanning the popular magazines of the day for self-help advice to print in The Pennsylvania Gazette. Based on his reading, he had become convinced that the key to self-improvement was daily self-examination. ([Location 37](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=37)) > Accordingly, he devised a spiritual accounting system, drafting a list of twelve virtues: temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, and—saving the one he found most challenging for last—chastity. ([Location 40](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=40)) > Franklin later expanded his list to thirteen by adding another virtue a Quaker friend told him he needed to work on: humility. ([Location 41](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=41)) > Franklin’s conclusion was that “without Virtue Man can have no Happiness in this World.” ([Location 49](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=49)) > Stoic self-help philosophy, Cicero’s Tusculan Disputations: O philosophy, guide of life! O searcher out of virtue and exterminator of vice! One day spent well and in accordance with thy precepts is worth an immortality of sin.3 ([Location 50](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=50)) > Thomas Jefferson asking him for some wisdom in Latin to enlighten his students. Although he had no original Latin verses to add, Jefferson wrote, he wanted to offer some “humble prose” from Cicero’s advice manual: Therefore the man, whoever he is, whose soul is tranquillized by restraint and consistency and who is at peace with himself, so that he neither pines away in distress, nor is broken down by fear, nor consumed with a thirst of longing in pursuit of some ambition, nor maudlin in the exuberance of meaningless eagerness—he is the wise man of whom we are in quest, he is the happy man.5 ([Location 61](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=61)) > Jefferson emphasized to Cook the ancient wisdom of Cicero’s philosophy, in words remarkably similar to Franklin’s: “[I]f the Wise, be the happy man, as these sages say, he must be virtuous too; for, without virtue, happiness cannot be.”6 ([Location 68](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=68)) > Intrigued by the fact that Cicero’s now forgotten self-help manual had inspired both Franklin and Jefferson to draft similar lists of twelve virtues for daily living, I decided to read Cicero myself. ([Location 77](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=77)) > I then set out to read the other books of ancient wisdom that shaped Jefferson’s original understanding of the famous phrase in the Declaration of Independence about “the pursuit of happiness.”9 ([Location 78](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=78)) > A reading list that Jefferson first drafted in 1771, five years before he wrote the Declaration, provided an answer. Jefferson sent the list to his friend Robert Skipwith, who had asked for books to include in a private library, and revised it over the years. Under the category of “religion,” Jefferson’s reading list includes Cicero’s Tusculan Disputations, as well as a top ten list of other works of classical and Enlightenment moral philosophy:11 Locke’s Conduct of the Understanding in the Search of Truth. Xenophon’s memoirs of Socrates, translated by Sarah Fielding. Epictetus, translated by Elizabeth Carter. Marcus Aurelius, translated by Collins. Seneca, translated by Roger L’Estrange. Cicero’s Offices, by Guthrie. Cicero’s Tusculan questions. Ld. Bolingbroke’s Philosophical works. Hume’s essays. Ld. Kaim’s Natural religion. ([Location 85](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=85)) > Unconvinced by the rigors of Puritan theology, which I had been studying as an English major, I craved an answer to the question of whether spiritual and moral truth could be obtained by reason rather than revelation, by good works and reflection rather than blind faith. ([Location 98](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=98)) > Scholars have debated for centuries about which books most influenced Jefferson when he wrote the Declaration, but surprisingly few of them focus on the original meaning of “the pursuit of happiness.” ([Location 110](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=110)) > But when I read the books of moral philosophy on Jefferson’s reading list, I found that the similarities were far more important than the differences. With the help of electronic word searches, I was surprised to discover that many of the books contain the phrase that appears in the Declaration: “the pursuit of happiness.” And many cite the same source for their conclusion about the original meaning of the pursuit of happiness: Cicero’s Tusculan Disputations. ([Location 114](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=114)) > Today we think of happiness as the pursuit of pleasure. But classical and Enlightenment thinkers defined happiness as the pursuit of virtue—as… ([Location 119](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=119)) > For this reason, the Founders believed that the quest for happiness is a daily practice, requiring mental and spiritual self-discipline, as well as mindfulness and rigorous time management. At its core, the Founders viewed the pursuit of happiness as a lifelong quest for character improvement, where we use our powers of reason to… ([Location 120](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=120)) > For the Founders, happiness required the daily cultivation of virtue, which the Scottish philosopher Adam Smith defined as “the temper of mind which constitutes… ([Location 123](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=123)) > If you had to sum it up in one sentence, the classical definition of the pursuit of happiness meant being a lifelong learner, with a commitment to practicing the daily habits that lead to character… ([Location 125](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=125)) > Understood in these terms, happiness is always something to be pursued rather than obtained—a quest rather than a destination. “The mere search for higher happiness,” Cicero wrote, “not merely its actual attainment, is a… ([Location 126](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=126)) > Why was Cicero’s self-help book such a key text in influencing the Founders’ understanding of happiness? Because it offered a popular summary of the core of Stoic philosophy. To achieve freedom, tranquility, and happiness, according to the ancient Stoics, we should stop trying to control external events and instead focus on controlling the only things… ([Location 129](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=129)) > In this sense, Stoic philosophy has many similarities with the Eastern wisdom traditions, including Buddhism and Hinduism. “Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think,” said the Buddha in the Dhammapada, emphasizing the need to master our selfish impulses—including envy, arrogance, anger,… ([Location 133](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=133)) > The Hindu wisdom literature, including the Vedas, Upanishads, and Bhagavad Gita, sums up a similar teaching on happiness in a phrase often quoted by Mahatma Gandhi: “Renounce and enjoy.”18 In other words, only by renouncing selfish attachments to the results of our actions, only by acting selflessly, can we conquer our ego-based emotions—including anger, fear, and jealousy—live in the present,… ([Location 136](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=136)) > John Adams was excited to learn that Pythagoras, one of the founders of Greek moral philosophy, was said to have studied with the Hindu masters during his travels in the East,19 and in his correspondence with Thomas Jefferson at the end of their long lives, Adams discussed the… ([Location 140](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=140)) > The Greek word for happiness is eudaimonia, meaning “good daimon,” or good spirit, and the Greek word for virtue is arete… ([Location 145](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=145)) > In The Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle famously defined happiness as virtue itself, an “activity of soul in… ([Location 146](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=146)) > For this reason, although eudaimonia is hard to translate, it might be rendered as “human flourishing,” “a purpose-driven life,” or, in… ([Location 148](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=148)) > The Latin word for virtue is “virtus,” which also means valor, manliness,… ([Location 149](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=149)) > Today, modern social psychologists use terms like “emotional intelligence,” which they define as “the ability to understand, use, and manage your own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively,… ([Location 151](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=151)) > The Greek words for reason and emotion are logos and pathos, so for the Founders, passion… ([Location 155](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=155)) > Cicero traces the distinction between reason and passion back to Pythagoras, who divided the soul into two parts:… ([Location 157](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=157)) > Pythagoras further divided the irrational parts of the soul into the passions and the desires, leading his disciples to suggest a three-part division of… ([Location 158](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=158)) > In his dialogue Phaedrus, Plato popularized Pythagoras’s three-part division with his metaphor of a charioteer, representing reason, driving a chariot pulled by two horses. One horse, representing the passionate part of the soul, careened toward earthly pleasures; the other, representing the noble or intelligent part of the soul, inclined upward toward the divine. The goal of the charioteer was… ([Location 159](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=159)) > In his writings on happiness, Plato argued that we should use our faculty of reason, located in the head, to moderate and temper our faculties of passion, located… ([Location 163](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=163)) > Plato’s theory of the harmony of the soul became the basis for the “faculty psychology” that was developed by Enlightenment philosophers such as Thomas Reid in the eighteenth century and that was at the core of the Founders’ education. Faculty psychology held that the mind is separated into different mental powers, or faculties, including the intellect, the emotion, and the will. According to this view, the goal of education was to strengthen the intellect, or reason, so that it could moderate and control the will and the emotions in order to achieve the self-control that was key to happiness. ([Location 169](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=169)) > “Men are rather reasoning tha[n] reasonable animals, for the most part governed by the impulse of passion,” Alexander Hamilton wrote in 1802.24 ([Location 177](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=177)) > John Adams’s wife, Abigail, gave similar advice to their son, John Quincy Adams. “The due Government of the passions has been considered in all ages as a most valuable acquisition,” she warned,”25 emphasizing in particular the importance of subduing “the passion of Anger.” Her conclusion: “Having once obtained this self government you will find a foundation laid for happiness to yourself and usefullness to Mankind.”26 ([Location 179](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=179)) > To illustrate the definition, Johnson cites a text that also appears in Franklin’s autobiography and on Jefferson’s reading list: namely, John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Johnson’s selection comes from book 2, chapter 21, “Of Power,” which repeatedly uses the phrase “pursuit of happiness.”29 And Locke’s point, which he takes from Cicero, is that we should control our desires through calm deliberation so that we come to realize that our true and substantial happiness will best be served by long-term self-regulation rather than short-term gratification. ([Location 200](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=200)) > The ancient wisdom that defined happiness as self-mastery, emotional self-regulation, tranquility of mind, and the quest for self-improvement was distilled in the works of Cicero, summed up by Franklin in his thirteen virtues, and used by Adams in his “Thoughts on Government.” After Jefferson inscribed the idea in the Declaration of Independence, it showed up in The Federalist Papers, the essays Madison and Hamilton wrote in support of the Constitution, focusing on the promotion of public happiness. It was evoked by Presidents John Quincy Adams and Abraham Lincoln, as well as by the abolitionist Frederick Douglass, to defend the ideal of self-reliance and to advocate for the destruction of slavery. It became the basis of Alexis de Tocqueville’s idea of “self-interest properly understood” and of Justice Louis Brandeis’s idea of freedom of conscience. ([Location 207](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=207)) > Aristotle said that good character comes from the cultivation of habits, and it’s remarkable how much time and energy many of the leading members of the founding generation devoted to their own lifelong quests to practice the habits that would improve their character. ([Location 221](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=221)) > The Founders may not have meditated, but they practiced the habits of mindfulness. ([Location 226](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=226)) > Jefferson and other enslavers from Virginia recognized that it was craven greed—following Cicero, they called it avarice—that kept them from freeing those they held in bondage, even as they called for the “total emancipation” of all enslaved people in the future. ([Location 229](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=229)) > In his famous “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” speech, Henry quoted Joseph Addison’s play Cato: A Tragedy about the need to choose freedom over slavery. “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?” he asked. “Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” ([Location 234](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=234)) > Following the classical and Enlightenment philosophers, the Founders believed that personal self-government was necessary for political self-government. ([Location 244](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=244)) > In their view, the key to a healthy republic begins with how we address our own flaws and commit to becoming better citizens over time. ([Location 246](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=246)) > In The Federalist Papers, Madison and Hamilton made clear that the Constitution was designed to foster deliberation so that citizens could avoid retreating into the angry mobs and partisan factions that can be inflamed by demagogues. ([Location 247](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=247)) > The way for citizens to create a more perfect union, the Founders insisted, was to govern themselves in private as well as in public, cultivating the same personal deliberation, moderation, and harmony in our own minds that we strive to maintain in the constitution of the state. ([Location 251](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=251)) > In this sense, the Founders believed that the pursuit of happiness regards freedom not as boundless liberty to do whatever feels good in the moment but as bounded liberty to make wise choices that will help us best develop our capacities and talents over the course of our lives. ([Location 254](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=254)) > They believed that the pursuit of happiness includes responsibilities as well as rights—the responsibility to limit ourselves, restrain ourselves, and master ourselves, so that we achieve the wisdom and harmony that are necessary for true freedom. ([Location 256](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=256)) > The Founders understood the importance of our spiritual nature, and for many of them, the pursuit of happiness was a spiritual quest. ([Location 271](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=271)) > that moderating emotions is the secret of tranquility of mind; that tranquility of mind is the secret of happiness; that daily habits are the secret of self-improvement; and that personal self-government is the secret of political self-government. ([Location 274](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=274)) > Notes on Plato’s Phaedrus Our souls are forged of three-part composite A charioteer and pair of winged steeds One horse is noble temper’s reposit The other, seeking pleasure, passion leads The driver’s task: both horses to align Transporting soul to immortal realm of truth The noble steed soars up to the divine The vain and haughty steed careens to earth Approaching love, the chariot gyrates The shameless steed propelled by fierce desire The driver pulls his reins and remonstrates The lovers meet in reason’s sacred fire When temperance tames passion’s base alloys Two lovers merge in happy equipoise ([Location 281](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=281)) > It’s remarkable that Franklin attributed the happiness of his long life to his “evenness of temper” rather than his public accomplishments. ([Location 300](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=300)) > Franklin proposed, for the sake of clarity, to list more virtues, with fewer ideas attached to each, and initially came up with his list of twelve: Temperance Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation. Silence Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation. Order Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time. Resolution Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve. Frugality Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing. Industry Lose no time; be always employ’d in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions. Sincerity Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly; and, if you speak, speak accordingly. Justice Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty. Moderation Avoid extreams; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve. Cleanliness Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation. Tranquillity Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable. Chastity Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dulness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.5 When a Quaker friend informed him that people thought of him as proud and overbearing, Franklin realized that he had neglected an important virtue. Accordingly, he wrote, “I added Humility to my list,” along with the two most inspiring models of perfection he could imagine: Humility Imitate Jesus and Socrates.6 ([Location 341](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=341)) > Franklin’s standing queries for the Junto included: “What unhappy effects of intemperance have you lately observed or heard? of imprudence? of passion? or of any other vice or folly?” “What happy effects of temperance? of prudence? of moderation? or of any other virtue?”11 Franklin took these questions almost word for word from an essay by John Locke (which he neglected to cite) proposing the “Rules of a Society,” where members would meet once a week “for their improvement in useful knowledge, and for the promoting of truth and christian charity.” ([Location 381](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=381)) > At the age of eighteen, he left Samos to study astronomy, geometry, and the divine mysteries with the highest spiritual authorities of the East. Tradition holds that he may have studied with the priests of Egypt at Memphis and Thebes, the magi of Persia, the rabbis of Babylon, the Brahmans of India, and the oracles of Delphi, Sparta, and Crete. ([Location 434](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=434)) > Johnson’s book, which he called “a new system of morality,” was the first philosophy textbook published in America. And it closely follows William Wollastan’s definition of “the pursuit of happiness” as aligning our thoughts and actions with the self-evident moral and spiritual truths of the universe, all of which are accessible by reason. ([Location 685](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=685)) > Stoics: “Philosophy is the study of truth and wisdom… in the pursuit of true happiness.” ([Location 706](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=706)) > After following the classical division of philosophy into three branches—rational, natural, and moral—he then defines the practical branch of moral philosophy as “the art of pursuing our highest happiness by the universal practice of virtue.” ([Location 707](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=707)) > We can fulfill these duties, Johnson stresses, by cultivating the individual virtues of prudence, moderation, sobriety, chastity, meekness, patience, fortitude, contentment, frugality, and industry.82 (This covers most of the virtues on Franklin’s list.) ([Location 722](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=722)) > In their most inspiring joint venture, Johnson and Franklin worked together to extend their educational philosophy of self-improvement to Black as well as white students. The project represented a significant evolution in Franklin’s thinking on the question of equal rights for all. Franklin arrived in London in 1757 with two enslaved men—Peter and King—and had initially maintained that education for Black people, which he supported, could never make them the intellectual equals of whites. ([Location 737](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=737)) > When Franklin returned to America, he visited the school in Philadelphia and was favorably impressed. “I was on the whole much pleas’d, and from what I then saw, have conceiv’d a higher Opinion of the natural Capacities of the black Race than I had ever before entertained,” he wrote to the secretary of the Bray Society in London. “Their Apprehension seems as quick, their Memory as strong, and their Docility in every Respect equal to that of white Children.” After the visit, Franklin vowed, “I will not undertake to justify all my Prejudices, nor to account for them.” ([Location 743](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=743)) > Franklin forwarded an antislavery petition to the First Congress, at the very beginning of the American experiment. “That mankind are all formed by the same Almighty being, alike objects of his Care & equally designed for the Enjoyment of Happiness,” the Petition begins, invoking the language of the Declaration of Independence, “the Christian Religion teaches us to believe, & the Political Creed of America fully coincides with the Position.” ([Location 753](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=753)) > The petition then quotes the language of the preamble to the Constitution, insisting that “the blessings of liberty… ought rightfully to be administered, without distinction of Colour, to all descriptions of People.” ([Location 756](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=756)) > For the mature Franklin, it was obvious that the promise of the Declaration—that all men are equally entitled to the pursuit of happiness—meant what it said. ([Location 760](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C7RNM8SL&location=760))